[Testing Update] 2025-08-10 - Linux-Firmware, Gstreamer, KDE Framework

Manjaro Linux
3 weeks 3 days ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates.

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.296
  • linux510 5.10.240
  • linux515 5.15.189
  • linux61 6.1.147
  • linux66 6.6.101
  • linux612 6.12.41
  • linux615 6.15.9
  • linux616 6.16.0
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc0
  • linux61-rt 6.1.146_rt53
  • linux66-rt 6.6.99_rt58
  • linux612-rt 6.12.39_rt11
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2

Package Changes (Thu Aug 7 19:55:16 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 5 new and 5 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 1412 new and 1409 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 4 new and 4 removed package(s)

Overlay Changes

  • testing core x86_64: 13 new and 13 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 44 new and 46 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 1 new and 1 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

Click to view the poll.

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5 posts - 3 participants

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philm

[Testing Update] 2025-08-07 - Systemd, Heroic Games Launcher, OpenGamepadUI

Manjaro Linux
3 weeks 5 days ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates.

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.296
  • linux510 5.10.240
  • linux515 5.15.189
  • linux61 6.1.147
  • linux66 6.6.101
  • linux612 6.12.41
  • linux615 6.15.9
  • linux616 6.16.0
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc0
  • linux61-rt 6.1.146_rt53
  • linux66-rt 6.6.99_rt58
  • linux612-rt 6.12.39_rt11
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2

Package Changes (Thu Aug 7 19:55:16 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 5 new and 5 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 1412 new and 1409 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 4 new and 4 removed package(s)

Overlay Changes

  • testing core x86_64: 13 new and 13 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 44 new and 46 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 1 new and 1 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

Click to view the poll.

Check if your mirror has already synced:

4 posts - 3 participants

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philm

GNOME 48 Reimagined: Smoother Settings, Glorious HDR, and Precision Scaling

Linux Journal
3 weeks 5 days ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

With the arrival of GNOME 48, the desktop experience steps into a refreshing new era, blending clarity, visual richness, and adaptability. This release unfolds a more intuitive configuration interface, native HDR capability, and finer-grained display scaling. Whether you’re streaming, tweaking your workspace, or simply glancing over your notifications, GNOME 48 brings you improvements that feel both modern and meaningful, crafted to feel like they were made for real people doing real tasks.

A Refined Settings Environment Revamped Configuration Hub

GNOME 48’s Settings app has shed its former rigidity and stepped into a role that feels inviting and efficient. Never again will you wade through scattered sections, options are now neatly grouped, and the design flow intuitively matches how your mind works. Menus anticipate your focus, search responds predictably, and the overall layout whispers, “you’re in control.”

Assistive Features Front and Center

Accessibility isn’t an afterthought anymore, it’s central. Icons are clearer, toggles are easier to reach, and each label reads like someone actually sat down to ask, “How can we make this tool-friendly for everyone?” GNOME 48 puts inclusivity on full display, ensuring that those who rely on adaptive tech never need to dig for solutions.

Tighter System Synergy

Gone are the days when Wi-Fi, sound levels, or power settings felt tucked away. These essentials now respond faster, with less visual fuss and more behind-the-scenes connection to smarter system logic. It’s the kind of integration where you flick a switch and everything else falls into harmony.

Elevating Visuals with HDR Why HDR Lights Up the Desktop Experience

Forget washed-out colors or muddled shades, GNOME 48 steps up with HDR rendering, delivering brightness, depth, and contrast that bring your display to life. Darker shadows, gleaming highlights, sumptuous gradients, HDR transforms ordinary visuals into something cinematic. It’s not just eye candy; it's more faithful media, smoother workflows, and next-level artistic clarity.

What You’ll Need to Shine

This full-color upgrade doesn’t work across all drift of hardware, but it does mesh well with modern, HDR-capable monitors and compatible GPU drivers accelerating through Wayland. GNOME 48 ensures things just click when your stack supports it, activating the richer palette whenever your display and graphics card are game.

Go to Full Article
George Whittaker

Guardians of Privacy: How Security-Driven Linux Distributions Are Rising to Meet Growing Digital Fears

Linux Journal
4 weeks ago
by George Whittaker

In the last decade, the digital landscape has shifted from a space of casual convenience to a battleground for personal information. From constant corporate profiling to sprawling government surveillance programs, the reality is clear, our devices have become treasure troves for those seeking to exploit or monitor us. As trust in mainstream platforms erodes, a surge of interest has emerged around operating systems that place security and privacy at their very core. At the forefront of this movement are a new breed of Linux distributions designed not just for power users and security experts, but for anyone who values control over their data.

The Age of Hyper-Exposure

Every click, swipe, and typed search leaves a footprint. This wasn’t always a mainstream concern, many users once traded data for convenience without a second thought. But a string of high-profile incidents changed the narrative: massive data breaches leaking millions of personal records, whistleblower revelations exposing global surveillance programs, and marketing giants quietly building extensive behavioral profiles of individuals.

For the average person, these events have shattered the illusion of online privacy. For professionals handling sensitive work, journalists, lawyers, healthcare providers, data exposure is more than a nuisance; it’s a potential threat to safety, reputation, and trust. The result? An accelerating search for technology that resists tracking, intercepts intrusions, and limits data leakage before it can begin.

Why Linux Has Become the Privacy Battleground

Linux, in its many forms, has always worn transparency as a badge of honor. Unlike proprietary systems where code is hidden from public scrutiny, Linux distributions are open-source, meaning anyone can inspect the source code, audit for vulnerabilities, or suggest improvements. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle of trust and accountability.

Beyond transparency, Linux allows deep configurability. Users can strip away unnecessary software, remove hidden telemetry, and harden their system against attacks. Updates arrive quickly, often patched within hours of a security flaw being reported, compared to the slower cycles of commercial operating systems. And most importantly, Linux is free from the corporate incentives that often drive aggressive data collection.

What Sets Security-Focused Distros Apart

While all Linux distributions benefit from open-source transparency, security-oriented distros go several steps further by building privacy and protection into their foundation:

  • Hardened System Kernels: Some distros use custom kernels with advanced security patches (like grsecurity) to close off potential attack vectors.

Go to Full Article
George Whittaker

zabbix >= 7.4.1-2 may require manual intervention

Arch Linux
4 weeks 1 day ago

Starting with 7.4.1-2, the following Zabbix system user accounts (previously shipped by their related packages) will no longer be used. Instead, all Zabbix components will now rely on a shared zabbix user account (as originally intended by upstream and done by other distributions):

  • zabbix-server
  • zabbix-proxy
  • zabbix-agent (also used by the zabbix-agent2 package)
  • zabbix-web-service

This shared zabbix user account is provided by the newly introduced zabbix-common split package, which is now a dependency for all relevant zabbix-* packages.

The switch to the new user account is handled automatically for the corresponding main configuration files and systemd service units.

However, manual intervention may be required if you created custom files or configurations referencing to and / or being owned by the above deprecated users accounts, for example:

  • PSK files used for encrypted communication
  • Custom scripts for metrics collections or report generations
  • sudoers rules for metrics requiring elevated privileges to be collected
  • ...

Those should therefore be updated to refer to and / or be owned by the new zabbix user account, otherwise some services or user parameters may fail to work properly, or not at all.

Once migrated, you may remove the obsolete user accounts from your system.

Robin Candau

[Testing Update] 2025-08-04 - Kernels, Toolchain, Blender, Mesa, Ollama

Manjaro Linux
4 weeks 2 days ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates.

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates
  • Some Kernels got updated
    • this includes an initial preview of 6.17 kernel series
    • toolchain updates with gcc security fixes and glibc 2.42
  • Some Updates to GNOME
  • Blender 4.5.1
  • Mesa 25.1.7
  • Inputplumber 0.61.0
  • Ollama 0.10.1
  • Updates to Python and Haskell
Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.296
  • linux510 5.10.240
  • linux515 5.15.189
  • linux61 6.1.147
  • linux66 6.6.101
  • linux612 6.12.41
  • linux615 6.15.9
  • linux616 6.16.0
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc0
  • linux61-rt 6.1.146_rt53
  • linux66-rt 6.6.99_rt58
  • linux612-rt 6.12.39_rt11
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2

Package Changes (Mon Aug 4 08:50:41 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 25 new and 25 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 1449 new and 1446 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 17 new and 17 removed package(s)

Overlay Changes

  • testing core x86_64: 27 new and 25 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 185 new and 178 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

Click to view the poll.

Check if your mirror has already synced:

17 posts - 9 participants

Read full topic

philm